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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Who owns the genealogy companies? Part Three

Looking at the larger genealogy companies is an interesting challenge. Publicly owned corporations (even if only part of the stock is owned by the public) have a whole stack of legal rules to follow concerning financial reporting and ownership. For example, Ancestry.com's reports are on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website. See Ancestry.com. None of the following companies apparently have SEC listings:

However, vSpring, one of the investors in WorldVitalRecords has nine separate SEC listings. In addition to the listing for Ancestry.com, its main investor, Spectrum Equity Investors V, L.P. is also listed. The results of this little exercise is that publicly traded companies are just that, public. Whereas privately held companies are, of course, private.

The next company on the list is Footnote.com. The company history is described as follows:

The concept for Footnote.com is rooted in the company's years of experience in the digitization business as iArchives, Inc. Starting in 1999, iArchives digitized historical newspapers and other archive content for leading universities, libraries and media companies across the United States.

From the beginning, the iArchives team developed a unique understanding of the value of creating an online repository for the world's original source documents. Leveraging the proprietary systems and patented processes built for the digitization of paper, microfilm and microfiche collections, the management team made a strategic decision: Use the iArchives platform to provide access to these historically significant and valuable collections.

In January of 2007 Footnote.com goes live with over 5 million documents already featured on the site. Today we continue to grow and bring to life history that was once hidden.

iArchives.com is the registered domain name of iArchives, Inc. of Lindon, Utah. The website for iArchives describes the company as:

iArchives’ vision is to be the world leader in transforming microfilm and other print content into searchable, digitized, online databases. To achieve that vision, iArchives is providing technology and a process that will substantially reduce the cost and time it takes to archive documents while enhancing the user's experience in exploring those documents.

Our process uses off-the-shelf hardware and state-of-the-art iArchives software to convert your content into a customized database searchable over the Internet or an intranet. We help our customers solve difficult business challenges and take advantage of new business opportunities through the implementation of innovative technology.

Other than the notice of the address in Lindon, Utah, there do not seem to be any other details about the ownership of the company. As of 18 May 2010, Footnote.com had 65,166,164 total pages online.